Art-by-the-Sea: The shifting sands of a legendary art community

By Lisa Crawford WatsonAdventures Monterey Bay

Posted:
09/18/2011 01:00:00 AM PDT

HAD THE LANDSCAPE been anything other than unforested hills sloping into the sea, a wide arc of white sand tucked into a craggy coastline framing a Pacific blue expanse, and a place of clear light and cool summers, the artists would have gone elsewhere.

In escaping a city that had toppled during the tremor of all time - the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake - the artists sought refuge in a place that seemed safe, where they could write of their angst and aspirations, paint pictures of this new Paradise-by-the-Sea, and photograph the Lone Cypress.

Founded in 1902 and incorporated in 1916, by 1910 it was reported that some 60 percent of Carmel homes were built by residents "devoting their lives to work connected to the aesthetic arts."

Nineteen artists met at "Gray Gables," the home of artists Josephine Culbertson and Ida Johnson, on Aug. 8, 1927 to discuss the merits of establishing an association for "the advancement of art and cooperation among artists."

"The new Carmel Art Association has plenty of spunk and pep," wrote the editor of the Carmel Pine Cone newspaper at the time. "And, if its vivacity can be directed properly, it ought to be a good thing for Carmel."

Sculptor Gordon Newell moved to Carmel during the early '30s, where he had made weekend trips during school, to the family cabin of a classmate. He quickly immersed himself in the community of "quasi-intellectuals" and artisans who were building the foundation of an artist colony.

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"Carmel was just a little road to town then," the late artist once said in an interview. "I walked up one of those coastal ridges. I never could forget the smell of the air and the sage and the sea all mixed into one and made up my mind then that I would live there."

Artist Jerry Wasserman arrived on the Peninsula on New Year's Day 1945, when the war was waning and the entire art community was smaller than the current membership of the Carmel Art Association. It's hard to remember the details of life more than 65 years ago, but he does recall that the association was as discriminating as it is today; it usually took more than one effort to get in.

"The painters of the day," he has said, "were traditional but not conservative. They worked from nature, inspired by the area and the plein aire tradition. Although I do recall an emerging community of abstract impressionists at the time."

For artist Gene Elmore, it all started with, "Undercurrent," the 1946 film where Robert Taylor was trying to murder Katherine Hepburn in the fog. Filmed in Pebble Beach, the location lured Elmore to the Peninsula where he discovered an art community in neighboring Carmel-by-the- Sea and vowed to live there someday.

The first time he tried out for membership in the Carmel Art Association, he didn't make it. On the second try, in the 1950s, he did. By then, he had established a studio in town, where he was doing local portraiture. He had a one-man show in his studio gallery where nothing was more than $75.

Artist Dick Crispo was 10 years old when he came to Carmel from New York in 1955; the year he began painting in earnest. By age 11, he was showing his work in local exhibits. His life had doubled by the time he made his first application to become a member of the Carmel Art Association, but he was turned down. Two years later, in 1969, he became a juried member under the category of social commentary and drawing.

"I worked for Studio Art Supplies when I was in high school in 1962," Crispo said. "We had two art supply stores in town with small galleries in them; other than that we had only three art galleries in the whole town: Zantman Gallery, Carmel Art Association and Smithson Gallery. We also had studio galleries all over town, where individual artists shared their work. And we had an art school: The Carmel Art Institute. That was an art community.

"Today, people don't realize is what's missing. Imagine, two art supply stores with small galleries, three commercial galleries all showing local artists representing three price ranges, studio galleries and a school. What a different picture it was then compared to what we have now.

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In 1989, artist Chris Winfield and his family of artists moved to Carmel, where he opened his eponymous art gallery. In so doing, his contemporary gallery joined a community of some 120 galleries, as diverse and dynamic as the weather patterns by the sea.

"The Carmel art scene is a mixture of good galleries," said Winfield, "and others filled with production art: a very wellpainted, attractive image that has nothing to say. Carmel attracts such a great group of people from all over the world, and we can never tell what their level of taste and sophistication or pure attraction will be as they walk in the door. If it touches a core element for them, it has done its job."

Carmel continues to have a wide variety of art to choose from, says Crispo; a diversity of styles and artists.

"Of course, I favor the galleries that represent local artists; contemporary galleries like Gallery North, Nancy Dodds and Winfield, as well as historical galleries like Rieser, Trotter and Josh Hardy. These are the galleries that deal with important work of our past and contemporary work of today. It is very important for a community to support its own. We have an abundance of galleries in town; we need to make sure we have an abundance of art."